Vowels. Oh dear. It’s a geeky one.

Into rehearsal for this thing in the City of London and now I’ve met the people and understood the thinking I’m considerably more upbeat about it. Learning slightly odd lines in isolation is tough, and maybe I’ve been spoiled – a lot of my last minute learns recently have been Shakespeare. He’s just so easy to learn once you get under the skin of it. You have the verse to help, and there’s an unerring writer’s instinct in those long texts that is pretty much universal and gives the lie to the “committee” theory. The thoughts connect to one another. There are very few vast logic jumps, of the sort you have to make sense of by the half dozen a page with many axe grinding modern scribes. He wrote people. It really isn’t just a quirk of timing and contacts that caused him to jump to the fore. He’s working on so many levels. He uses the sound of words so well for atmosphere and double meaning. He’s honestly even properly considered the vowel sounds… When I hear modern actors translate his words it is always disappointing. It proves they can’t listen to more than their own intention.

An example? The other night there were loads in a production of Twelfth Night I saw. I didn’t have a notepad but I was largely confused as they rarely were necessary. The one I remember was perhaps the one I saw the reason for the best, so it stuck in my mind when other less logical ones fell away. It’s Orsino. I’ve never played him, don’t really want to, it’s not my part. Still, he has romanticised his own feelings towards Olivia. He’s the guy who says “If music be the food of love, play on”. This is an attractive eligible man who really likes the idea of unrequited love, of pining after someone. He’s romanticised his own lack of clarity about someone who just isn’t into him. He thinks if he loves enough, somehow it’ll change. Rubbish of course, Shakespeare knew it, but incels across the world haven’t caught on and never will. Lucky for him Viola just fucking gets his noise and can cut through the bullshit, plus he’s hot and rich.

He sends Viola to try and persuade Olivia to admit him. She asks: “Say I do speak with her my lord, what then?” (What should I do if I’m allowed to speak to this woman you so desperately adore?)

O, then unfold the passion of my love.
Surprise her with discourse of my dear faith.
It shall become thee well to act my woes.
She will attend it better in thy youth
Than in a nuncio’s of more grave aspect.

Leave aside the fact he’s outsourcing his own eloquence. That’s Orsino all over.

Nuncio’s. A messenger, in Latin. It’s an awkward choice. The actor I watched recently substituted the word “messenger”. “Why would there be such an awkward choice in an otherwise pretty clear instruction?” he maybe asked. Let me try and make sense of it.

Read that passage above, and only speak the vowel sounds. Try and sound longing. If you know iambic pentameter then let yourself aspirate the vowels only on the stressed beat. This is generally a brilliant exercise to find out how your character is feeling anyway, without putting anything on it. Notice how every stressed beat has a long aspirated vowel. “O theeen unfooold thuh paaashuhn oooorv mai laaaahve.” etc (I can’t write phonetics) to “than iiiin a nuuuuncyos oooooorve more graaaaaave aspeeeeect” Now do it again with”messenger” instead of nuncio’s. Try them both, to make them sound fussy and to make them sound longing. Nuncio’s just sounds more longing than messenger. messenger = ééuh. Nuncio’s = uheeoh.

Shakespeare phrases it awkwardly. Because he’s a fucking genius. And Orsino is romanticising himself. So sure he’ll speak Latin randomly from time to time – it’s a romance language – and every one of his stressed vowels will be aspirated if you go with it. And who gives a fuck if a modern audience doesn’t get it, there’s tons they won’t get anyway, this stuff is over 400 years old. Only one in a few thousand modern people will hear “nonce” in nuncio’s enough to derail their comprehension. It’s lazy work. It doesn’t need to be done. If you’re gonna substitute a word, make the fucking vowels work with the substitution. Shakespeare is working on so many more levels than just meaning. I mean “courier” would be better than messenger. The vowels are a bit longer and less fussy. I just pulled that out my arse. These guys had a rehearsal process. But just… don’t be so arrogant and lazy. This stuff is still around because it is stuff.